SATELLITE EMERGENCY alert beacons were of no use to four fishermen when their boats sank in two separate incidents off Mayo and Donegal last year, according to official investigations.
Two Donegal fishermen died and two Mayo fishermen survived after a 12-hour ordeal, in the two incidents on October 30th and November 1st, 2010.
Reports published yesterday by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board found that "wind and wave action" may have caused the sudden capsize and sinking of a shellfish boat Jenniferoff Glengad, Co Donegal, on November 1st.
Edward Doherty (65), a father of six, and his nephew Robert McLaughlin (41) drowned in an incident which occurred "suddenly and without warning", the investigation board says. A day earlier, off the Mayo coast, John O'Donnell (18) and Nathan Flannery (20), from the neighbouring villages of Porturlin and Rossport in Erris, survived more than 12 hours in a liferaft after their 33 metre crabber, Léim an Bhradáin, was swamped by a large wave and capsized about 15 miles north of Belderrig.
Both vessels had emergency position indicating radio beacons, which would have transmitted a satellite alert on contact with water. However, the device on the Jenniferhad not been activated and was still in its manual release holster in the wheelhouse when salvaged. On the Mayo boat, the device remained in the wheelhouse after the sinking and "provided no assistance".
“If the EPIRB [the device] had been mounted in a ‘float free’ bracket on the outside of the wheelhouse, it would have floated to the surface and automatically activated . . . thus alerting the Coast Guard to the incident and allowing it to pinpoint the location of the vessel immediately,” the report says.
The two young Mayo men had difficulty in inflating their liferaft, but Mr O’Donnell found a car key in his pocket in the water and managed to cut the straps.
The investigation board says that if the liferaft had been secured on the wheelhouse with an approved hydrostatic release unit, it would have floated to the surface and inflated automatically.
The pair endured rough seas, reaching five metres at times, during their ordeal.
At one point a pod of dolphins came alongside and stayed with them until they could hear a helicopter overhead. They were located by the Sligo-based Irish Coast Guard Sikorsky at 1.30am on October 30th.
The board found no structural failure in the Jenniferafter it was salvaged off Donegal.
It estimates the number of pots on board at the time of the sinking as equivalent to the weight of 12 to 14 extra people on board. It says that the carriage of 50 to 60 pots would have a “significant adverse effect” on the boat’s stability.
Mr Doherty’s widow Marian said that Eddie her husband and Robert had been fishing all of their lives and safety was always a priority.
She disputed the “impression” given by the investigation that the boat was carrying too many pots, and said the load would have been spread evenly and would not have affected stability.
